Impact of COVID-19 on Staff Mental Health and Well-Being in SMEs:Strategies and Interventions to Support Workforce and Boost Productivity in the UK

2019冠状病毒病大流行导致全球各国政府采取前所未有的封锁和经济措施，以应对疾病的传播，并支持工人和企业。疫情对中小企业员工的心理健康和福祉构成了真实的威胁，雇主需要认真制定计划，以支持英国的员工（1600万人）。这方面的证据有限，需要从多学科的角度研究最佳战略，干预措施和政策，告知中小企业（99.9%的英国企业）如何支持员工并提高他们的生产力。据估计，560万工人面临失业的风险，英国经济将因疫情而在今年春天萎缩35%。预计这场经济危机将增加中小企业的员工人力资源问题，并对以下方面产生重大影响：员工生产力，例如需要履行多个角色，获得新技能，在不同的环境下工作，支持有限，以及避免瓶颈的压力;企业生产力-预计将满足更高的需求，科普供应不确定性，使供应链具有弹性，并在劳动力减少的情况下提高英国的生产力。该项目的主要目标是：（1）通过对英国1200名中小企业员工进行多阶段调查，建立一个概念模型，以便于分析中小企业员工面临的人力资源问题、导致这些问题的因素和各个工作层面之间的关系，以及疫情对员工和企业生产力的影响;（2）制定一个涵盖策略、措施及干预措施的新型冠状病毒员工福祉框架，并考虑中小企业的需要及限制，并与20家中小企业进行为期六个月的纵向研究，以评估其在疫情期间及之后不同工作环境下对提高中小企业员工的复原力及生产力的成效及影响;（3）开发新型冠状病毒健康应用程序，以监测中小企业员工的健康状况，并进行纵向研究，以显示通过应用程序收集的数据如何使每个中小企业了解其员工的需求，反思他们的福祉，这将有助于定制框架，即客观地制定解决员工健康问题的做法，战略和干预措施，福利和公司的生产力相关的问题。总结一下：目标1概述了中小企业及其员工的需求，并考虑到当前疫情下的业务和个人限制，该模式通过对1200名中小企业员工进行的多阶段调查得到验证;目标2将根据第一个目标、现有文献和指南为中小企业制定一个循证框架，以支持其员工在大流行期间和之后的健康和福祉，目标3将实施和试点一个人力资源应用程序，以监测和可视化人力资源状况，并检查其有效性，以支持每个中小企业及其员工的需求;最后，对英国15家中小企业进行的纵向研究将证明MH应用程序的有效性，以帮助定制考虑以下动态需求的框架：流行病中的个别中小企业，以及福利框架和心理健康应用程序对中小企业劳动力和企业生产力的影响。

COVID-19 pandemic has led governments globally to respond with unprecedented lock down and economic measures to combat spread of the disease, and support workers and businesses. The pandemic presents a real threat to small and medium sized enterprises' (SMEs') workforce mental health (MH) and well-being, and employers need to pursue serious plans to support their workforce (16 million people) in the UK. There is limited evidence in this regard and research is needed from a multi-disciplinary perspective on best strategies, interventions and policies informing SMEs (99.9% of UK businesses) regarding how to support the staff and enhance their productivity.12.8m working days were lost (2018-19, pre-pandemic) in the UK (£30 billion), due to work-related stress, depression and anxiety. It is estimated that 5.6 million workers are at risk of losing their jobs and that the UK economy will shrink by 35% this spring due to pandemic. This economic meltdown is expected to increase SMEs' staff MH problems and significantly impact: staff productivity, such as need to fulfil multiple roles, acquire new skills, work under different environment with limited support, and pressure to avoid bottlenecks; business productivity - expected to meet higher demands and cope with supply uncertainties to make supply chain resilient and boost UK productivity, with the reduced workforce. The main objectives of this project are to: (1) Develop a conceptual model that will facilitate analysing the relationship between MH issues faced by SMEs' staff, factors and various job dimensions contributing to these issues, and its impact on both the staff and business productivity during the pandemic, through a multi-stage survey with 1200 SMEs' employees in the UK;(2) Develop a COVID-19 employee well-being framework comprising of strategies, practices and interventions, considering SMEs' needs and constraints, and conduct a longitudinal study for six months with twenty SMEs to evaluate its effectiveness and impact towards increasing the resilience and productivity of SMEs' workforce in varying work contexts during and after the pandemic;(3) Develop a COVID-19 MH application to monitor the MH conditions of SMEs' workforce and pilot it with the longitudinal study, to show how the data collected through the app will enable each individual SME to understand its staff needs, introspect their well-being, that will facilitate customizing the framework, i.e. objectively putting in place practices, strategies and interventions to address employee MH, well-being and firm's productivity related issues. To summarize: Objective 1 outlines the SMEs' and their staff needs, taking into account business and individual constraints in the current pandemic demonstrated using a model validated through a multi-stage survey with 1200 SMEs employees; Objective 2 will develop a evidence-based framework for SMEs based on the first objective, existing literature and guidance, to support their staffs' MH and well-being during and after the pandemic, which will be validated by interdisciplinary experts and qualitative studies with selected SMEs; Objective 3 will implement and pilot a MH app to monitor and visualize MH condition and examine its effectiveness to support the needs of each SME and their staff; and finally a longitudinal study with 15 SMEs in the UK will demonstrate the effectiveness of MH app to help customize the framework considering the dynamic needs of individual SMEs in pandemic, and impact of wellbeing framework and mental health app on SMEs' workforce and business productivity.